


In Life, Death and Something In Between

by Soha_Friend



Category: Mortal Kombat (Video Games), Mortal Kombat - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 17:19:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17104835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soha_Friend/pseuds/Soha_Friend
Summary: Kuai sighed looking up at the blooded sky bruised with the black of the clouds. Their troop won against outworlders, but at what cost?





	In Life, Death and Something In Between

**Author's Note:**

> A SubSmoke one shot that I was planning on writing for a long while now. Some angst. Enjoy! :3

Kuai sighed looking up at the blooded sky bruised with the black of the clouds. Their troop won against outworlders, but at what cost? He sent amateurs whom he beat single handedly, to fight a Shinnok. A damn elder god!

His people were now assisting the injured, seriously hurt after the fight, so Sonya decided to call him alone to assist the mission. Too many people would only sabotage their task. Kuai’s radio creaked, Sonya’s shouting voice cutting through the hissing line,

“The reve-nants get- them, also-”

She was cut off. Get the revenants, huh?

The sky temple was completely destroyed, ruins of the building scattered on the perimeter. It seemed as though hell itself has taken over the place, burning it with its malice, suppressing it with it’s darkness. The holiness of the place long gone, all that was left was an empty feeling of disdain.

Revenants… Where could they go? The portal! The portal to the Heaven Realm.

He glanced at the entrance once, but stopped himself from thinking about what could be going on inside there. If Sonya sent him to find their undead “friends”, he would do just that. It was undoubtedly crucial, and thinking about how the younger generation of fighters would do against Shinnok would only drive him insane. He would have to trust them, just like he has already done before.

But even so Kuai couldn’t bear feel an unsettling dread in his chest. Maybe, because he was going to meet his companions whom he deemed dead for almost twenty five years. Perhaps so...

The back of the temple was intact, but that only made it seem more destroyed with the lack of light. Hiding behind a wall, Kuai observed what was going on. There they were, standing in a circle saying some kind of mantra… To be exact only four of them were in the circle, one was standing aside the others. He turned, as if knowing Kuai was there, and their eyes made contact.

Kuai’s heart skipped a beat.

_No! Not him…_

After getting out of his translike state he realized he needed to act quickly. He ducked behind a wall. If an alarm was raised, Kuai wasn’t sure that he would be able to take all of them on. Caution. Caution and calmness was important, still his heart was racing… and not because of fear.

He climbed the side of the building, holding himself with one hand on a ledge, waiting for the worst. Yet time passed and no alarm was raised, the revenants seemed not to move anywhere. An ambush?

He picked himself up, getting up onto the roof in one fluid movement. This position was way more comfortable. He was prepared for a fight, but there was only more silence.

The clouds thickened with black. The cryomancer was debating on whether to go to help Cassie and her team, because he was practically useless against magically enhanced opponents. But he didn’t get the opportunity as he heard a silent opponent near from the back.

Sub-Zero turned sharply, created a Kori blade, readying himself for a fight.

_No! Not him! It couldn’t be…_

The revenant wordlessly stood atop the half broken roof, red reflecting in his eyes. His veins glowed bright yellow, framing his face like a spider web. A single silver strand of hair escaping his hood was the only reasurnance that Kuai was not mistaken. And it was so damn hard to find the cheerful boy who Kuai knew in this undead being, and yet…

_It was him._

“Tomas?” He couldn’t hide the hurt in his words.

The revenant only gave a quiet laugh that made shivers run down Kuai’s spine. He seemed completely emotionless. At least to a normal person. But Kuai noticed the slight shift of his brow. The look in his eyes - the look of an enslaved. And it all seemed way too familiar.  
  
“Your friend is dead-” His echoing voice cracked, “- I am Enenra”

Dead? He should have been dead too. They should have been together! In life, in death. So why? Why is one of them cursed with the cold, hollow shell of living and the other damned with the burning of the inescapable fire, then?

Dead? But both of them were here now. Both of them - just flawed copies of their former selves.

The cryomancer let his guard down. Letting his body relax, at the risk of being terminated. But if this was the person he knew… if this was really the person, he wasn’t sure he would be able to fight and was certain the other would not even start. He let the Kori blade melt away.

“I know it is you,” Kuai said, but what he really meant was _I hope it is you._

The revenant scoffed, revealing his sharp fanglike teeth,

“Do you think I’m so helpless that you don’t consider me a threat at all?” He yelled, his words full of anger.

In a hiss of black smoke he was gone, only to reappear behind Kuai with an excruciatingly powerful blow, sending Kuai tumbling against the ribbed roof. The roof cracked. He picked himself up immediately. Another huff of smoke. But his time he was prepared, blocking the next hit.

Lightning split the sky into patches of scarlet. Black, thick rain fell down, banging loudly off all surfaces.

Kuai did not fight back. A multitude of death carrying blows landed on him one by one, with him only ducking away. But with each time it became harder and harder. The slippery roof was practically in ruins by now, was threatening its inhabitants with collapsing down.

_Smoke. Smoke. Smoke._

He coughed convulsively, trying to get a breath, suffocated by the revenant’s supernatural abilities.

A pathetic attempt to freeze a formless opponent, ended with Kuai getting the proof - the powers of the initiate of air were indeed enhanced, but he was holding back. Otherwise Kuai would be dead a long time ago.

“Smoke, please, I know you’re in there. I know you care!” He yelled, but it came out more like a cry.

It has been so long since Kuai let emotion get the best of him that it felt foreign. Knowing the fate of the other man hurt like an open wound, but what was really killing him was seeing him in front of him so familiar but so unreachable.

“Huh! You think I care,” the voice - a failed attempt to hide that, yes, he did in fact care. Or at least Kuai hoped that this was what he heard.

“If you don’t, than why didn’t you finish me yet?”

They stood for a minute in silence, letting the rain soak their clothing through. They stood and waited. The stood and hoped.

And then the world suddenly went black.

_Smoke. Smoke. Smoke._

The next moment he found himself on his back, a crushing pressure on his ribs. Vision going blurry, he saw a pair of bright yellow eyes above.

“Tomas, To-”

The air got caught up in Kuai’s throat. Their eyes met once again. The revenant did not push hard enough, like he was not ready to make the final blow. Like he was hesitating.

A sad smile spread on Kuai’s lips. All the years of separation hitting him like thunder that was taking over with its rumbling. The world was ending, and here he was letting himself get choked just because he met a ghost. Just because his delusions led him to believe that this shadow of his former life was real. That he was real.

But it all felt so real. It felt so present.

An eternity of fighting and what for? For it to be shattered by a glimpse into the forgotten. Maybe… he should stop fighting. Maybe… they could be together in death, more than they ever got to be in life.

“Do it. Finish me, then.”

Kuai has accepted his fate, at least he would die fighting for the right thing. He survived long enough to see that the world would never change, but at least he would no longer be alone.

Dots of black creeped into his vision, growing by the second.

That’s it. The end.

_Smoke..._

Kuai’s lungs filled with air, ash settling somewhere deep. Wait. Air? Vision returned to him after a few painfully long minutes. He sat up, his ears ringing, his head pulsating wildly.

Eyes focused on a figure kneeling down near him. The hood was gone, silver hair flowing down. His veins were still glowing yellow. A pair of familiar grey eyes staring back, their yellow glow gone.

Were those tears? Was he crying?

“Tomas?”

Rain banged off the rooftop. Water ran down the ridges falling off loudly.

“Kuai,” he smiled sadly, tears now falling down his face freely.

Kuai smiled back. They were children, and this was a game of pretend - imagining that they both were not in this horrific bloodbath. Smoke’s head fell onto Kuai’s shoulder, who wrapped his hands around him. He was shaking. This was the tightest embrace both of them had in years.

They stayed like that, not noticing that the world was ending. Not noticing that they both were just outlines of the life that died away a millennia ago.

It did not matter. At least it was over. At least they were together now.

In death - just like they were in life

**Author's Note:**

> I have been writing a lot in the previous months, so stay tuned for other MK stories! ;)


End file.
